What They Don’t​ Tell You About Traveling

This shit is exhausting. Like, seriously. You don’t hear that though. You just hear about the places and the cool things that happened there. What travelers don’t tell you is that the actual traveling part sucks. It’s time to call BS.

I travel for work and leisure. My job is sending me to 5 different states all within the span of 1 week, that’s only 7 days! You do that math. I love my job but after this contract is up, consider me Houdini because I’m disappearing. Actually, consider me Nefertiti because I’m a Queen. ha.

I’m asked so many times “how I get to travel so often”, and how people would love to trade places with me. No baby, you don’t want to.

There was a trip where I went from Chicago, IL, USA – Bonn, Germany – Milan, Italy – Marrakech, Morrocco – Agadir, Morocco – Essaouira, Morocco – Marrakech, Morocco – Madrid, Spain – Bonn, Germany – Chicago, IL, USA-  Miami, FL – The Bahamas – St. Thomas – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Grand Turks – Miami, FL – Chicago for a week & a half  then back to Bonn, Germany.

Sounds like a lot, right? But on Instagram it looked like I was living the dream. A little like this :

 

 

But I wasn’t.  I can’t even begin to tell you how tired I was after that month. I was sluggish. I just wanted to sleep, every day, all the time. Your body needs time to heal after all of that. Honestly, I still haven’t really sat down since then, and that’s my own fault. It illustrates so differently on social media, but if you were to bump into me after any of my extensive trips you would see the bags under my eyes and how I turn every outing into something I can walk into with yoga pants and t-shirt.

It illustrates so differently on social media, but if you were to bump into me after any of my extensive trips you would see the bags under my eyes and how I turn every outing into something I can walk into with yoga pants and t-shirt.

And when I’m traveling for leisure, I usually need a vacation from my vacation. Ha. I’m not even joking.

It’s just funny that I write for a travel blog, I travel for work, I travel for fun, yet I only share the surface about traveling. I want when I write to feel like I’m talking to Muneek, Dean or one of my other close friends. I want it to be candid and raw and real.

And all my friends know that I’m a bit of a drama queen, so sometimes when I talk I just go a little overboard then dial it back down and say ” I still wouldn’t trade it anything else” and that’s true.

Yeah, I’m tired as hell, I don’t feel like unpacking, don’t feel like packing, don’t feel like taking a taxi to the freaking airport, don’t feel like paying for an upgrade to get out of sitting in that damn middle seat, don’t feel like putting my phone on airplane mode, and I don’t feel like searching for wifi so I can use WhatsApp.

But as soon as I step off that plane I go from DRAMA QUEEN to Woman of the The World, and I am so grateful for every opportunity and every piece of land that I get to walk on. I just had to complain a little before.

All jokes aside, I do realize how blessed and favored I am to be in this situation. Which is why you don’t hear me complain about it. I don’t take any of this for granted, at all. I just wanted to make light of the situation and tell you ( my readers) that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

 

 

Ci sentiamo, Ciao ❤

Birthday in Cancun 

It’s my birthdayyyyyy, I can fly to Cancun if I want to!

It’s only right to celebrate your birthday in Cancun at a 5-star resort! Because where else would I spend my birthday? Don’t answer that.

I travel a lot. But rarely do I travel to 5-star luxury resorts where everything is all inclusive! Maybe 24 will be that year for me *cheers to luxury* haha.

I’m only slightly kidding.
We flew United, cautiously, and headed to Cancun from Ohare. The flight wasn’t that bad, honestly. A little less than 4 hours and a 20-minute cab ride to the hotel to be greeted with Moët and a few other surprises unbeknownst to me 🙂 it was worth it.

I just wanted to share a few pictures/videos from my vacay as I’m not sure when I’ll post again about Cancun.

 

 

 


 

 

 Thank you, Mommy! 💗💗💗

Cruisin’ the Eastern Caribbean

In the spirit of the holidays, I decided to share a post on my second most recent trip. To escape the cold and sweat off the calories from Thanksgiving (I’m American, I know) my family and I embarked on a Carnival Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean.  We set sail from the Port of Miami two days after Thanksgiving and our itinerary was as follows:

  1. Half Moon Cay, The Bahamas
  2. Fun Day at Sea
  3. St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
  4. San Juan, Puerto Rico
  5. Grand Turk
  6. Fun Day at Sea
  7. Miami, FL

 

I think everyone should at least try a cruise once to get a feel for it. It’s the laziest way to see the world. Haha. All jokes aside, it’s great for those who want to have a stress free vacation that caters to your every need.

Below you will find photos from my week long voyage. I did not label each photo, as I will be doing individual posts on the islands later on, as well as my experience with the Carnival Cruise line.

If you are somewhere cold like me (Germany) I hope this warms your souls and gets you thinking about where to visit next!

Enjoy 🙂

 

Walk With Me: Yves Saint Laurent Garden

Words honestly fail me when trying to describe the vibrant garden dedicated to Yves Saint Laurent.  While it is a small garden in comparison to others that you may be used to seeing, for example, Garfield Park Conservatory is much bigger in size. What YSL Garden lacked in size it made up for in beauty.

 

 

 

They do have a small museum located in the garden for an additional fee, but we opted out and just enjoyed the garden alone. Twas enough for me.